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Alexis Riverleah
__FORCETOC__ Alexis Riverleah – called Alex for short – is a young mage that resides on the mean streets of Wayrest, specifically the streets and canals of Shorsbarre (name pending) Island in the Longhope affiliated district. Her acrobatic ability and skill with water-based magic is matched only by her jovial personality and playful disregard for ceremony and authority. Characteristics Appearance Alexis is of slightly above average height and has the lean and lanky frame of an acrobat, lacking in bulk but possessing taut sinew that suggests she is stronger than she looks. She does however look like she is slightly underfed and thinner than she should be. As for her bust – well – as she herself puts it; “I’m not winning any wet corset contests any time soon.” Her skin features a slight tan obtained by constant time spent outdoors as opposed to any virtue of race. She has doe eyes that shine like opals, light blue with flecks of green. Her messy blonde locks are cut so that they sit just below her jawline, often swept back out of her face. A small band of freckles spans across her cheeks and smallish nose. She has thin lips and a rather toothy smile. All in all, she’s a fairly pretty girl and would, as they say, “scrub up nicely” if she actually tried to look ladylike and presentable. Equipment and Attire Favouring simply attire, she usually wears a pair of three-quarter length britches, simple boots, a plain tunic, sturdy vest and a knotted leather armband. She doesn’t carry a weapon of any kind (unless you count her lute, which is usually slung over her back). The only real thing of value that she owns is a silver locket, the surface worn from where her thumb has stroked it for comfort. While not technically hers, she is often seen with a stray tabby cat which she calls Tibs. Personality Alexis is strangely optimistic for someone who essentially spent their whole life in the gutter. She is something of a rebel and a troublemaker, frequently busking in the street without a permit or pilfering the odd pigeon pie. She has little respect for ceremony and tradition, finding them incredibly dull, preferring pranks and so on, but never to the extent of maliciousness. While some might call her homeless, penniless existence sad, she finds it liberating and free, as after all, “A girl who never owned a coin never owed a Tault either.”She is very easy-going, not one for long term planning, preferring to go with the flow and take life as it comes. She likes the odd drink at the tavern and will be among the first to launch into a bawdy tune. She is a very non-aggressive person, preferring not to get into arguments or physical violence, though she is surprisingly sturdy in both. She doesn’t know a lot of things, but what she does know she is very good at, and she knows it, adding a hint of cheerful cockiness to her personality. While her morality may have a little bit of a grey area – particularly where the authorities are concerned – she would be considered overall to be a good person, if one excuses the odd minor lawbreaking. Skills Having grown up as a canal urchin for nearly all of her life, Alexis has learned several important skills in order survive in the seedier districts of Wayrest. As a result she is incredibly nimble and acrobatic, a skill that she uses to get places faster or evade trouble makers and local authorities both, able to jump, flip, wall-run, slide and climb with relative ease. On the rare occasion that she is caught up in a fight she uses her opponents’ moves against them, utilising more defensive, round-about methods of combat rather than outright aggression. Her natural agility is further augmented by her magical ability. She is able to use “force magic” - her own colloquial term for the spells she utilises that fall into Alteration - enabling her to jump that extra bit higher, propel herself just that little bit faster, turn a tiny bit sharper, giving her a considerable edge when it comes to evasion. While this style of magic includes blasting foes off their feet and telekinesis she has seldom ever used it as such, preferring a more practical and less combative use. But by far the most creative and unique application of her ability is a skill she calls “Aquaplaning”. Taking water-walking one step further, she has learned how to enchant footwear so that she can glide across the surface of water like a frozen pond. Coupled with her force magic, she is able to propel herself at amazing speeds along the water’s surface, navigating the many canals and waterways of Wayrest with greater speed and agility than any small watercraft could ever manage. This, like all of her magical ability, has been self-taught, part of the reason for her very selective knowledge on the subject. Aside from her athletic and magical ability, she has little in terms of practical skills. She is a terrible cook, useless at sewing, doesn’t know her way around animals (except cats) or have knowledge at carpentry, masonry, forging, accounting or anything really. She is – however – able to play the lute and sing with a good degree of skill, her only real source of income. She is also, thanks to her abilities, a fairly adept thief, though she is highly selective about what she pilfers; food mostly. As a quirk of her upbringing, she has learned how to survive on little and to eat big when she can. As a result, she can eat quite a lot for a girl of her size, and is almost always hungry. History: Alexis Riverleah has no memory of her parents. She was left on the doorstep of a Wayrest orphanage as a newborn, with only a silver locket and a note that told the owner that her name was Alexis. She was taken in to be raised alongside the other children that were housed and fostered by Returned Temple priestesses. Her childhood there was unremarkable until she was around eight years old, when the first signs of her magical ability began to appear. One of the priestesses tried to guide her down the path of restoration magic, but those skills never really clicked. From a young age she felt an affinity for the water, proving to be a good swimmer. She would often watch the ships coming into the harbour from the window of the orphanage and liked to imagine that her parents were sailors or bargemen, or that perhaps she would get adopted by some. She chose her own last name – Riverleah – to reflect this. However, by the age of fourteen she still hadn’t been adopted by anyone, and so took matters into her own hands. She ran away from the orphanage and began a life on the streets. When not looking for food, she found she had the freedom and spare time to follow several pursuits. She managed to obtain a lute and practiced playing and singing, getting rather adept at both. However, her skill in magic would grow upon coming across a mage from The Thaumaturgical Society for the Furthering of the Arcane Arts performing a demonstration of alteration magic, making various objects move around him in a controlled manner. Alexis - remembering how she would occasionally knock things off tables with magic accidentally - badgered the old mage for lessons. Finally, after much pleading and eyelash batting, he gave her a copy of Reality & Other Falsehoods for her to study. She reread the book cover to cover multiple times, committing passages to memory, so that when she saw the mage again he was convinced to teach her the basic telekinetic spell. Afterwards, she taught herself, learning how to use her new found powers and honing them into the “force magic” that she would come to employ so efficiently. She then took this magical training and continued to put her own spin on it, using it to enhance her own physical abilities. It would be in her seventeenth year that she began to experiment with magically propelled water transportation, creating the enchanted boots and mode of travel that has made her a unique sight along Wayrest’s canals, and a harder target for the guards to capture as a result. Since that day she has been coasting through life, living free of practically all obligations, enjoying her freedom. Thus far, no one important has really taken notice of her, despite being a rather unique sight out on the water. That, however, could all change soon...